Magia Record Episode 1: Have You Heard? That Rumor About the Magical Girls

"Hmm. You really want to know, don't you?" ~ Kyubey to Iroha Tamaki regarding her forgotten wish

Have You Heard? That Rumor About the Magical Girls やぁやぁ、知ってる？魔法少女のその噂
First airing	4 January 2020
Script	Kaede Ogawa Gekidan Inu Curry (Doroinu)
Storyboard	Toshimasa Suzuki
Episode director	Yukihito Miyamoto
Animation Director	Nobuhiro Sugiyama Hiroki Yamamura Kana Miyai Yoshiaki Ito

Summary

The episode begins with a train going through Takarazaki City in the afternoon at sunset. On the train Iroha Tamaki moves to another part of it to find a little girl crying by herself while the narration talks about magical girls and Witches. When Iroha talks to her the girl points to another room in the back and after noticing her soul gem was glowing, Iroha goes to investigate. When she enters the next room it is completely dark save for the light in the previous room and she discovers a pet collar on the ground. She opens the back door of the train and finds that the end leads to a Witch's barrier with several metal objects flying about. Iroha transforms and jumps off the train to fight the witch, Box Wood. They fight within the barrier when suddenly another magical girl named Kuroe jumps in and lands a hit on the Witch, breaking part of the metal structure and causing it to start flying as it sics its Familiars on the girls. As Iroha readies to fire a shot, she stops and notices something falling from the debris: it turns out to be a white cat, presumably the one owned and lost by the little girl from before. She catches the cat right as Kuroe reappears by her side and the Witch attacks. The pair escape from the barrier without killing the Witch and return the cat to its owner.

In the next scene, Iroha is walking home. As she walks up the stairs and opens the door to her room there appears to be a mysterious shadow of a girl sitting on the right side in a chair. As everything turns to static, Iroha wakes up in her bed, thinking it was a dream. The right side of the room is also revealed to look empty as though no one was ever living there compared to the one in the dream. Iroha then goes to the kitchen and starts making lunch only to realize she has once again made two instead of one. She calls for her Mom, but stops when she remembers she isn't there. A scene flashes back showing her parents getting ready for a business trip abroad and leaving Iroha alone until the boarding house is ready for her to move into.

The next part has Iroha on her way to school where she thinks to herself if being a magical girl is something she wants to do at home. In class, her teacher talks about the Milky Way while Iroha looks over to Kyubey who is sleeping nearby. It then cuts to Iroha talking to Kyubey in a "theater" about her wish. Kyubey tells her he doesn't know what her wish was and that while he knows that she used it for someone else's sake, he doesn't know the wording of it nor its nature as there are too many obscure parts to it. She asks him if there is anything they can do to help remember it, and Kyubey answers that it's unusual for the wish to be forgotten but also theorizes that may be part of the wish was for it itself to be concealed. Iroha wonders if she would even make herself wish for something that she and everyone else wouldn't remember. Kyubey asks her if she would really like to know what her wish was and Iroha says of course as she is risking her life for it. She ends it with wondering why she just can't remember anything about it.

The scene switches back to Iroha's classroom where her teacher asks her for the answer to a question and she absent-mindedly answers "a wish". During lunch, Iroha sits alone with only Kyubey for company, eating the second lunch she made. Next has Iroha talking to her teacher, reiterating that her parents are going on their business trip this week and that it must be hard for her to live alone. The teacher tells her if anything happens for her to rely on her friends for help. When she leaves the office, three other girls speak to her about her parents being out of the house and state how jealous they are that Iroha can do whatever she likes while they're gone. One of the girls suddenly remembers that she has cleaning duty today but whines that she has somewhere else to go, so Iroha offers to do it for her since she has no plans today and that there's not much for her to do when she gets home anyway.

While Iroha is mopping the floor and three other girls are taking out the garage, one of the girls talks about how Iroha isn't part of any club activities and doesn't appear to hang out with anyone after school, but also mentions that she must be doing something with her time as she's always busy.

Afterwards, Iroha's phone gets an incoming call from Kuroe, whom she meets up on the train to discuss some important information. Iroha asks her what happened and talks about how they encountered Box Wood yesterday and notes how their numbers have been dropping lately either because of their efforts or something else, but says that while getting more grief seeds is a problem it's better than any more Witches causing damage to the city. She also mentions that she's glad that someone like herself can be of use in some way. Kuroe asks Iroha if she's heard of this: that magical girls can be saved if they go to Kamihama City. Iroha asks her what she means and Kuroe answers that it means they don't have to fight Witches anymore. Iroha asks if that also means that there are no Witches in Kamihama, but that if there are Witches in other areas and magical girls don't work hard then those cities will be in danger. Kuroe doesn't know the exact details, and when Iroha asks her who told her all of this she mentions its a rumor everyone is talking about. Iroha thinks it's rather suspicious and Kuroe says a girl had that dream of the rumor and that many others also had a dream where a little girl told them to go to Kamihama to be saved.

Iroha asks if everyone is supposed to just believe that and Kuroe believes it because she also had the dream happen to her last night. Kuroe then asks if she never thought about wanting to be saved from being a magical girl and Iroha doesn't answer. Kuroe goes on asking what Iroha wished for to become a magical girl and tells her that her own wish was to go out with someone she likes. She states that they have broken up since then, but at the time it was the only thing she really wanted and that there was nothing else more important to her. She also says that if she knew it'd be like this, then she would have never become a magical girl in the first place and that it would've been better if her wish didn't come true, that even if you become a magical girl it becomes meaningless if you die.

Suddenly, Iroha notices that the train passed her station and she missed her stop. She then asks about Kuroe's destination before. As Kuro answers "Kamihama City", the rest of the passengers suddenly look over and walk to them, revealing them all to have been witch-kissed. The girls find themselves getting stuck in the crowd until water comes surging in and flushes them all out, leaving Iroha and Kuroe on the train with the Witch. Iroha transforms to begin fighting off the Familiars and make her way out and into the barrier. She attacks the metal structures to lure the Witch and they suddenly form all around her into a sphere as the Witch swims by. She keeps shooting at it but none of her shots hit it and Iroha wonders if she's being carried by the Labyrinth. She takes aim again, but stops when she realizes that if the Witch dies and its Labyrinth fades, she will free-fall to the ground. Instead, Iroha and the barrier are carried across the city until they eventually crash elsewhere.

When she wakes up, she finds herself in some other city at night with Kuroe knocked out a short distance away. Iroha rushes over to Kuroe to see if she is alright, but just then another Witch's barrier forms around them. Box Wood starts coming at the girls when another Witch, Zenobia, pops out of the ground and attacks it, killing it instantly by tearing it in two. Iroha attempts to take down the new Witch but finds that her shots are ineffective. As Zenobia gets ready to attack them, it abruptly turns its attention to a small Kyubey on top of a sand block, appearing to be singing about Uwasa. The Witch attacks the small Kyubey as it dodges and runs to jump into Iroha's arms. The moment she catches it, Iroha feels a shock going through her as memories of her with another girl in a hospital enter her mind. Kuroe recovers and approaches Iroha, who is still holding the small Kyubey and is in a state of shock. The Witch comes back ready to attack them when someone else appears and cuts off one of its arms to disable it. The person, another magical girl named Yachiyo Nanami, jumps in to finish off the Witch before it can hurt them. She catches its grief seed and also retrieves Box Wood's grief seed hidden in the sand. The barrier fades and the girls de-transform, with Iroha noticing that she no longer has the small Kyubey in her arms.

Yachiyo turns to the two girls and asks them where they came from, to which they answer Takarazaki City. Iroha was about to thank her, but Yachiyo interrupts and informs them that they are in Kamihama West territory and that hunting Witches without permission in other magical girls' territory will lead to hostilities. Iroha tells her that they didn't mean to intrude, but Kuroe interjects that she heard the rumor that magical girls can be saved if they come to Kamihama. Yachiyo says that she heard of the rumor before too, but tells her that Witches in this city are stronger than ones in other areas and that there are a lot more of them, that being saved here is the exact opposite of what will happen and that they shouldn't have come here. Yachiyo then tosses the two girls the grief seeds and tells them to leave and stay away from Kamihama. Before leaving, Iroha asks her if there's a small Kyubey in Kamihama, but Yachiyo says she's never seen a small one before and that there is also no Kyubey in Kamihama anymore. She says that she doesn't know why that is, but the collection of used-up grief seeds can be done elsewhere so it's not much of an issue. Iroha says that the small Kyubey helped her in the Labyrinth, and Yachiyo answers that if she happens to find it again she will pass on her thanks to it. As Iroha and Kuroe prepare to leave, Yachiyo stops them one last time and asks about where exactly they heard the rumor. Kuroe simply tells her she dreamed it and that other girls have had the same dream. Yachiyo tells Kuroe to pass her message along to those other magical girls to keep them out as she doesn't intend to allow any more magical girls in Kamihama, and that if they still come in anyway, they will be considered enemies.

Back on the train ride home, Iroha talks to Kuroe about how strong that magical girl was and thinks that magical girls that aren't as strong as her probably won't be able to survive in Kamihama. She also notes that it seemed to be very dangerous for magical girls like themselves. Iroha restates the rumor about magical girls coming to Kamihama can be saved and wonders what it's really all about.

The next scene cuts to show numerous girls with their baggage walking along railroads, all seeking to go to Kamihama in order to be saved. Iroha also appears here running towards a strange girl whose face is distorted. The next part shows the many wishes of other magical girls as Kyubey narrates about granting wishes and the duty of magical girls to fight Witches.

The last scene shows Iroha on a roof with Kyubey begging for him to grant her wish to cure Ui's illness. The memories from before flash back and Iroha awakens from her bed, seemingly from a dream. She utters Ui's name in question and then the scene fades to black.

Translations

Screencap	Notes
	* These runes appear in Box Wood's barrier. They relate to the duties of a magical girl. Lesson 1 Become a puella magi
	* These runes appear in Box Wood's barrier. They relate to the duties of a magical girl. Lesson 2 Kill the witch
	Box Wood
	* These runes appear in Box Wood's barrier. They relate to the duties of a magical girl. Lesson 3 Save lives
	(Left) Please do not escape midway through. Customers are precious goods. (Right) Please do not throw things at the performers.
	Whispering Prohibited The only Good Witch is a Dead Witch!
	Please Be Quiet Speech is silver, silence is golden
	Zenobia
	* These runes appear near the end where several magical girls begin traveling in mass to Kamihama. They may be Wings of Magius' manifesto considering the same Kanjis appear on the posters for Magius. We escaped from the ordinary (Left and right) 解放 ("liberation". Similarly hereinafter) (Middle) 翼 ("wing[s]")
	We do not care what others think The symbol corresponds to Box Wood or the Friendship Ending Staircase Rumor.
	We do not glorify the past The symbol corresponds to the Seance Rumor in Episode 4 and 5.
	We do not tolerate anger The symbol corresponds to the Lucky Owl Water in Episode 6 and 7.
	We do not rely on blood ties The symbol corresponds to the Rumor of the Anonymous A.I. in Episode 8, 9, and 10.
	We affirm ourselves at expense of our neighbors The symbol corresponds to the Rumor of the Memory Museum in Episode 11 and 12.
	Locate me Similar runes also appear in the game's prologue in German "Bitte Finden Sie Mich", but the "2017" at the bottom is obscured here
	T A
	A G
	S C
	H
	Puella Magi Madoka * Magica Side Story Magia Record Episode 1

Observations

• Iroha rescuing the cat on the train could be a reference to Madoka's wish to save Amy in the first Drama CD.
  • It is also notable that while Amy was a black cat, the one on the train is white.
• The intensive slogans in the school presumably hints the presence of social engineering, which is then used by Magius to manipulate magical girls' opinion.
• During Iroha's conversation with Kuroe in a train:
  • While speaking to Kuroe on the train before the second attack from Box Wood, Iroha mentions that the reduced number of Witches could be due to their efforts and that "Not getting any more Grief Seeds is a problem, but it's better than Witches causing damage. And I'm glad that even someone like me can be of use in some way." This echoes the sentiments voiced by Madoka Kaname in the original series.
    • In Episode 2, Madoka states "If someone like me can really help other people, I think that'd be really nice." and in Episode 10, she states "Well, it certainly is dangerous, and we do get scared, but the more witches we defeat, the more people we can save. So it's worth it, right?"
  • All other passengers are facing train windows, never noticing their conversation about magical girls until Kuroe says out her destination "Kamihama City", after which all the passengers suddenly walk towards the two girls. These suggest that the train and its passengers have been manipulated by a witch (Box Wood).
  • "The only Good Witch is a Dead Witch!" displayed on the train screens is derived from "The Only Good Indian Is a Dead Indian." said by Philip Henry Sheridan. Though the sentence could be presented by Box Wood, along with "Whispering Prohibited" (私語厳禁) and "Please Be Quiet" (お静かに) to express its dissatisfaction towards the two girls' whispers, paradoxically, its anti-Witch standpoint suggests that it shouldn't be from a witch. Thus, this could either be presented by Box Wood or no more than artistic expression.
  • Though Iroha says she missed the station, no scene depicts the train stopping at Takarazaki-Dai-sanji Station. Instead, the train passes the station rather smoothly, presumably implying that the train, rather than Iroha, misses the station, a sign that the train has already been under a witch's control.
• It is shown that when one witch (Box Wood) enters the barrier of another (Zenobia), they will fight and kill each other, ignoring any magical girls that happen to be there.
  • A witch killing another witch will still result in them dropping their respective grief seeds.
• Numerous wishes of magical girls are shown through billboards and store signs in an imaginary city. See List of Wishes.
• There are multiple references to Night on the Galactic Railroad in this episode:
  • The cat that Iroha saves appears to be distinctively drawn to look similar face-wise to the characters in the 1985 film of the novel. See the comparison here.
  • Similar to how Giovanni's father is out on a trip and he must take care of the house, giving him no time to study nor time with friends, Iroha is in a similar position where both of her parents are out on a trip and she is left by herself and appears to not hang out with any friends after school.
  • According to Director Miyamoto, Iroha's parents' green passports are an allusion to Giovanni's green ticket.
  • Iroha is asked a question in class pertaining to what the Milky Way is made of, similar to how the main character Giovanni is asked the same question but is unable to answer.
  • Iroha is shown to be with Ui in a hospital, possibly reflecting Giovanni's ill mother in the story.
  • There are many scenes with Iroha riding the train and several magical girls talking about taking a night train to Kamihama, which may be a reference to the steam train Giovanni rides through the galaxy. The railroads Iroha uses daily is a single-track railway, which is very uncommon in developed, transit-dependent areas. This could be a reference to the single-trip Galactic Railroad bound for heaven as well as a metaphor for magical girls' destinies with no recovery.
  • Takarazaki-Dai-sanji Station's glass ceiling features several constellations, in particular Lyra. Lyra and its star Vega are the last stars seen by Giovanni before he falls asleep and finds himself aboard the Galactic Railroad. (This is confirmed to be an allusion by Director Miyamoto)
    • For other references to Kenji Miyazawa in Magia Record, please see Kenji Miyazawa and Magia Record
• Aspects of the opening animation mirror that of the original series, namely Iroha holding hands with her Magical Girl self and then combining.
• The colored raindrops in the opening are similar to that of the default home screen in the game, which themselves were taken from the Holy Quintet transformation-and-roll-call scene in Rebellion.
• Ui speaking but nothing being said in the opening is a reference to the beginning of the game where Iroha first had dreams about her, not knowing who she was nor what she was saying.
• The cherry blossom tree Iroha is under in the opening is also a reference to the Rumor of the Eternal Cherry Blossom.
• The clock in Iroha's home has the same pattern as her magic seal.
• The color of the numbers on the clock represent the different episode arcs in the story.
  • The pink number one represents Iroha.
  • The teal numbers two and three represent the Momoko trio and the Staircase Rumor.
  • The indigo numbers four and five represent Yachiyo and the Seance Rumor
  • The violet numbers six and seven represent Felicia and the Misery Rhyton Rumor.
  • The green numbers eight, nine, and ten represent Sana and the Rumor of the Anonymous AI.
  • The white numbers eleven and twelve represent the Memory Museum.

Changes

• Yachiyo's design was altered slightly; in the game she has a bead headdress, but here in the anime her headdress was changed to feathers.
  • Her black dress was also altered; in the game her dress was sleeveless.
• Zenobia was also redesigned significantly, such as no longer having the shovels and bucket on her head and her colors were made to be duller. The fabric pattern used to create her body has also been changed.

Trivia

• Iroha's father holds out a passport and tells her mother not to leave it behind. The passport is identical to the Magia Passport that is offered in-game except it is green like a Japanese passport rather than pink.
• Iroha owns a plushie version of the Witch Candy.
• The slogan posters in Takarazaki school can be regarded as homage to the Russian avant-garde poster.
• The claw machine that appears in the opening is the same one that appears in Nagisa's transformation in the game. (Note the polka dot theme on the claw).
• The most common meaning of a hydrangea flower in Japan is pride, and sometimes apologies or gratitude. However, depending on the color, hydrangeas can mean a number of things. Purple hydrangeas signify wealth or a deeper understanding.
• The potted flowers under glass on the table behind Ui are Edelweiss flowers. In the language of flowers, Edelweiss represent "an important memory".
• In the intro, the clock on the desk is pointing to 2:00 pm.
• The song sang by Little Kyubey is named "Uwasa Kazoe Uta" (Rumors), and it's sang by Emiri Katou (Kyubey's seiyuu).
• The three students Iroha speaks to at school are identical to three female students attending Mitakihara Middle School, who themselves speak to Homura every time she first comes to class.

Gallery

See:Gallery:Magia Record Episode 1

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  Comparison

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  Iroha with a plushie resembling the Witch Candy

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  Iroha's mother's passport and Magia Passport in the game

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  A clock in Tamaki's home

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  Takarazaki-Dai-sanji Station's glass ceiling featuring Lyra

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  Classroom

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  Iroha's teacher

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  Yachiyo throwing grief seeds

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  Comparison

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  A poster with signs derived from Kanji 解放 ("liberation") and the emblem of Eve

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  Magical girls leaving for Kamihama

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  Ending Title Card drawn by Papa

External links

Episodes
Previous Episode	Current Episode	Next Episode
-	Have You Heard? That Rumor About the Magical Girls	It's a Proof of the End of a Friendship